Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
In a nation that has developed to a high art advertising, the creator who refuses to advertise himself is immediately suspected of having no product worth selling.
- "William Dean Howells" (1983) in At Home, 1988.
I suspect that one of the reasons we create fiction is to make sex exciting.
- "Oscar Wilde: On the Skids Again" (1987) in At Home, 1988.
Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.
-"Dawn Powell: The American Writer" (1987) in At Home, 1988.
I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too much going on that you can't take into account. You can, however, write a perfect sentence now and then.
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
By and large, serious fiction was the work of victims who portrayed victims for an audience of victims who, it was oddly assumed, would want to see their lives realistically portrayed.
- Screening History, 1992.
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with his private vision the deeds and thoughts of men. The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small yes at the center of a vast no.
- (Source attribution sought; contact gorevidalpages-at-gmail.com)
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